Evaluating student experiences in a family medicine clerkship

One hundred students on an eight-week family practice clerkship completed pre- and post-evaluations noting their experience and confidence in diagnosing and treating 20 common medical problems and doing 15 common tasks. Students' confidence increased significantly during the clerkship in dealing with 18 of 20 common problems and 13 of 15 common tasks. Confidence ratings were highly correlated with experiences on the clerkship. Even though clerkship experiences varied at different sites, students reported similar increases in confidence at all sites. A self-administered questionnaire is a simple and effective way of documenting student experience, comparing clerkship sites, and measuring achievement of course objectives.